Well, it seems my "testing the water" Ebay auction with my 2.8 P4 laptop means it will be selling tonight.

As it does most of my folding work I was wondering if I could get some techie help in achieving similar folding rates (or better ) from a barebones stand-alone tower system. Basic needs are:

Fast processor and "fast" ram. No need for sound/graphics.

HDD can be cut down to run Windows XP and nowt else (but F@H ) - I have a spare old 30gig one which might be suitable?

Only drive can be a basic CD-ROM.

A motherboard capable of running all the above.

At the moment I've had one link to a £200 Athlon 64 Dual processor which sounds lush but would use up a big part of my budget (I want "change" from the laptop )

Suggestions to places to look (would prefer second hand), and offers to build me something please?

this any good

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?BB-A309GCB

Not bad Rob, not bad at all.

I have found that if I use an old case I can get slightly better processor and a gig of good RAM for under £300 - Might give a P4 3.2 a shot.

Can anyone settle the good old Athlon / Pentium debate please? Its just you all know this "pc" is going to be doing sod all except folding so I want the reliability to be spot on, and also it must be the fastest possible machine to number crunch.

(but the processor can't cost more than about £150 from Ebuyer/Ebay)

I wouldnt mind knowing of a good basic spec for folding -- my scores are defo lacking in recent times.

Not bad Rob' date=' not bad at all.

I have found that if I use an old case I can get slightly better processor and a gig of good RAM for under £300 - Might give a P4 3.2 a shot.

Can anyone settle the good old Athlon / Pentium debate please? Its just you all know this "pc" is going to be doing sod all except folding so I want the reliability to be spot on, and also it must be the fastest possible machine to number crunch.

(but the processor can't cost more than about £150 from Ebuyer/Ebay)[/quote']

have a look at my points score for the number of units = athlon 64 3500 and have had (touch wood) no problems with any AMD product ...same for all really just keep it cool

forgot ..... my points are under pdtdi

http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/user_summary.php?s=&u=134722

When's your next unit finishing Rob? You've not scored big for a little while now. :confused:

I'm waiting on some techie mate to come back to me, but was wondering whay techies on here thought of the Athlon/Pentium debate.

http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/user_summary.php?s=&u=134722

When's your next unit finishing Rob? You've not scored big for a little while now. :confused:

I'm waiting on some techie mate to come back to me' date=' but was wondering whay techies on here thought of the Athlon/Pentium debate. [/quote']

keep getting 500s which dont score much ...just got a 250 that should score 600points and i'm on 125/250

http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/user_summary.php?s=&u=134722

When's your next unit finishing Rob? You've not scored big for a little while now. :confused:

I'm waiting on some techie mate to come back to me' date=' but was wondering whay techies on here thought of the Athlon/Pentium debate. [/quote']

That's quite a cool site -- all pretty graphs an all -- how do you use the signature - when I try to copy it just gives the url

[ IMG ] H T T P://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/sigs/sigimage.php?u=130318 [ /IMG ]

I think it works? Just put your username in.

So yours is:

H T T P://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/user_summary.php?s=&u=130305

Gives:

(i.e put H ttp://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/sigs/sigimage.php?u=130305 in IMG tags)

[ IMG ] H T T P://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/sigs/sigimage.php?u=130318 [ /IMG ]

I think it works? Just put your username in.

So yours is:

H T T P://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/user_summary.php?s=&u=130305

Gives:

(i.e put H ttp://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/sigs/sigimage.php?u=130305 in IMG tags)

Thanks for that

I've never tried this folding lark, but i've got enough spare bits here to make a P4 2.4 folding machine.

I'm going to build it up today and see how she scores.

Unless anybody wants some secondhand components?

The laptop is gone! :( bye bye high folding rate. :(

Time to find something even BETTER now! :evil:

The laptop is gone! :( bye bye high folding rate. :(

Time to find something even BETTER now! :evil:

I definatetly need something better - tried to overclock my AMD64 3000 tonight for the first time -- didnt like it one bit -- not sure if its the chip or the board - but not very happy with its performance, I'm sure my old Athlon was producing more than this and that was wound right up !

Hoping to build a barebones tower around a 3.2gig P4 chip - Reckon it would be more stable. Is there a value Athlon setup which could compete with a 3.2ghz P4? For around £150 on its own?

Oh dear does this mean that my lead will extend further devon mate If its any help the two machines i have it running on here @ work are only P4's 2.4 to 2.8GHz Cpus, with 256-512 ram (so it doesnt have to be super fast) although i believe you're better sticking with the P4's as that is what Folding@Home have benchmarked the WU's against.

what would I need to do to upgrade a p4 1.6 to summat a bit more meaty??? Bearing in mind I'm looking at minimum spend here

what would I need to do to upgrade a p4 1.6 to summat a bit more meaty??? Bearing in mind I'm looking at minimum spend here

Easiest way, rather than mess around with your current system is leave that one alone, but pick up a second hand Athlon. I reckon for

Or if like me... you borrow the components on a long term contract from your place of employment:rofl:

Just remember that unless you have XP64 or are running Linux and the F@H app is a 64 bit one then getting a 64 bit cpu will be a waste of money.